The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for the University Ex
tension Division.
NOVEMBER 30, 1927
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XIV, No. 5
rial Itoara, E. C. Branson, S. H. Hobbo. Jr.. P. W. Wager, L. R. Wilson, E. W. KniEht. D. D. Carroll. H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter November 14. 1914. at the Postofflce at Chapel Hill, N. C.. under the act of Auerust 24. 1912.
BUILDING AND LOAN IN U. S,
SAVE FOB A HOME
Contractors' aifznboanis tell ns that
the great American ideal is “Own Your
Own Home,” and we will agree that if
it is not the American ideal it ought to
be. Home ownership anchors a family
to a community and thus develops a ^
stable, interested, loyal type of citizen
ship. Any institution, then, that en
courages and simplifies saving for a
home serves a wonderfully useful pur
pose. If it is a cooperative institution,
based on the principle of mutual aid, it
is doubly praiseworthy. Such an insti
tution 13 the building and loan associa
tion, an American plan originating in
Philadelphia, the city of homes, and
now in use in every part of the country.
The United States League of Build
ing and Loan Associations gives the
total number of such institutions in the
United States for 1926-27 as 12,626,
with aggregate assets of $6,334,103,807.
In 1926-26, it is said, these associations,
through mortgage loans, provided the
means for the purchase of 660,000 homes
JO tiie Unitc‘4 States.
In Uw table which appears in this
issue the assets of the building and
loau associations in each state are given
and the states are ranked according to
the assets per capita. It will be noticed
that Pennsylvania leads in aggregate
assets, the assets of its associations
exceeding a billion dollars. The state
has 4,460 associations. This is not
surprising, since the idea originated in
Pennsylvania and thus many of the asso
ciations there are older than those of
other states.
New Jersey Leads
New Jersey lends all the states when
building and loan assets are measured
an a per capita basis. Maryland and
Ohio also rank ahead of Pennsylvania
on this score. Of course, all of these
states are contiguous to Pennsylvania
and thus early in the field. Ohio has
gene further than any other state in
developing rural building and loan
associations as well as urban associa
tions. It is rather surprising that New
York should rank so low in the use of
.this valuable agency. The explanation
must lie in the fact that New York
City people live so largely in apart
ment houses. Another reason may be
the extensive use of savings banks by
the people of that state. Relatively
low interest rates may also contribute
to the dearth of building and loan asso
ciations there.
The development of the associations
in the South is more recent and hence
most of the southern states rank low.
Louisiana and Missouri are exceptions,
due no doubt to the presence of
New Orleans and St. Louis. North
Carolina cities have witnessed a re
markable development of the build
ing and loan associations in recent
years and there are 240 associations in
the state with total assets of $86,716,-
009. Ranked on a per capita basis North
Carolina is twentieth among the states.
The movement has been slow in getting
started in Georgia, hence the poor
showing made by that state.
Meet Southern Needs
The tiemendous value of building and
loan asiiociations in fostering home
ownership, in inculcating the habit of
systematic saving, and in developing
faith and experience in cooperative ef
fort, justifies their further extension in
the South. In no other section is ten
ancy more of an evil (at least farm
tenancy); in no other section are
credit facilities less satisfactory and
the loan shark more in evidence; and
in no other section do the people need
more to be disciplined in cooperative
effort. The building and loan associa
tions thus meet three essential needs
of the South.
In order to build up confidence in the
building and loan associations it is very
important that every possible safeguard
be thrown around them. So rigidly
should they be controlled by the state
and so carefully examined that a failure
would become almost impossible. There
have been two or three failures in the
state in recent years and this ought
sot to he the case. It is inexcusable to
permit those who thriftily save for a
home to lose through careless bank
supervision. It is cruel and unneces
sary.—Paul W. Wager.
SCHOOL SAVINGS BANKS
Nearly four million pupils in the
schools of the United States are partic
ipating in school savings banking and
deposited almost twenty-four mil
lion dollars during the year ended June ,
30, 1927. Seven years ago there were ;
2,736 schools having school savings. ,
As of June 30, 1927, the number is;
12,678. The number of pupils participat
ing in school savings has increased
from 462,661 to 3,815,786. The deposits, ;
which seven years ago amounted to
$2,800,000, may be contrasted with
deposits during the last year of about
$23,700,000. The net savings as of
June 30, 1927, were $9,464,178.93, and
the bank balances $39,137,073.91.
Progress of school savings is gener
ally forward where once it has gained
a considerable foothold. It develops
most rapidly in towns and cities be
cause in urban centers most persons
receive their pay at stated periods and
children enter savings with greater
assurance of continued participation,
in a number of states, California, Con
necticut, Illinois, Indiana, Massachu
setts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jer
sey, New York, Ohio, Pennnsylvania,
Rhode Island, Washington, and Wis
consin, school savings have assumed
really large proportions. In seven
states gross deposits for the year
passed the million mark. In New York
they are in excess of three and one-half
million dollars, and in Pennsylvania in
excess of four million.
School savings in its inception at
tracted little attention from educators.
As it has assumed a larger place in the
educational field, more and more edu
cators are coming to appreciate its
value in terms of social conduct of the
children during school years and later
in life—Report of American Bankers
Asssociation.
ESSENTIALS
In agriculture we should continue
to obtain higher productivity per
worker, greater output per unit of
cost. But we should not stop at
that. We should aim to secure a
wider joint effort by farmers to gain
that bargaining power which in
dustry and labor have attained by
working together through their
organizations built along lines of
mutual interest.—W. M. Jardine.
DECENTRALIZE INDUSTRY
We regard it as self evident that the
widest and most uniform industrial
progress is being and will in the future
be attained, through continued develop
ment and decentralization of industry;
that the lack of economic balance as
between the great areas of rural and
semi-rural population in the South
largely devoted to agricultural industry
on the one hand, and rapidly growing
and highly diversified industrial cities
on the other, is in large degree re
sponsible for many of our economic ills.
Only one phase of the situation need
be mentioned to visualize the principle
that dominates the whole. The crea
tion of home markets for farm products
by the establishment of labor using
industries in theretofore rural localities,
to a large extent relieves the farming
industry of that instability occasioned
by sole dependence on distant markets.
Likewise, home sources of supply for
food products for the industrial popula
tion have their large advantages over
distant sources. Many other phases,
economic, social, educational and hy
gienic, may readily be visualized.
Industrial locations are fixed upon
according to many factors, the most
important of which are raw materials,
labor, transportation and power. In
the South we have the raw materials
suitable for a wide diversity of in
dustry. We also have the labor, or can
readily procure it in any given instance.
Our highways, rails and navigable
water courses furnish a ready solution
of the transportation problem.
There remains the power, which it
lies within us to bring to our doors,
merely by the adoption of public poli
cies and rational concepts that will
encourage the investment and restrain
the possible abuses of private capital.
Consequently we believe that the water
powers of the South should, in addition
to being developed to the utmost, be
distributed in the public service in the
widest possible measure so that they
will ultimately constitute a great res-
ervoir of energy, under sovereign con
trol and regulation, available to the
small as well as to the large user,
wherever located, and at a regulated
price that will afford a return on the
invested money merely large enough
to justify the ready investment of
money in the development of these
properties.—Resolution offered at
Southern Appalachian Power Con
ference.
ORDERLY MARKETING
Brazil is turning out the heaviest
coffee crop in its history, and in the
face of a carryover of probably 6,000,-
000 bags, the price has been steadily
advancing...This reversal of the usual
economic trend, when a small surplus
sets the price for the large volume
that is actually needed for consump
tion, illustrates what can be done in
the form of farm relief when a govern
ment seriously sets itself to the task of
giving that relief, and not talking
about it. For Brazil coffee is rising in
the face of a shockingly high produc
tion because of the efforts of the
Defense Committee.
This Defense Committee, organized
by the government of Brazil, has been
invested with certain powers that give
it the authority to regulate the amount
of coffee that may move from produc
ing centers to seaport points. As the
government of Brazil controls tlie rail
roads, it has been an easy matter to
do this. The Committee, in advance
of such a condition as developed this
year, built enormous warehouses in
which the coffee is being stored, and
from which it is shipped only in volume
sufficient to fill the needs of the world.
And it borrowed the equivalent of
$90,000,000 to enable the financing of
the coffee that is so held. Growers
who need money are able to secure
substantial advances on the strength of
their warehouse receipts.
It is estimated that Brazilian pro
ducers will receive at least $100,000,000
and perhaps as much as $200,000,000
more for their crop than they would
have received, had not the Defense
Committee met the situation...In hold
ing the over-production of this year to
meet the demands next year when
there will be an under-production, the
government claims that it has developed
the principle of orderly marketing
along sane and logical lines.—Adapted
from Manufacturers Record.
TO SAVE WOODLANDS
Reforestation in the New England
states is commanding much attention
from forestry officials and others in
terested in the perpetuity of the wood
lands that have made this section one
of the beauty spots of the United States.
A joint committee appointed by the
Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and
the Massachusetts Forestry Association
has launched a ten-year program in
which the state, towns and private own
ers of woodland are each given a def
inite part to play in the reclamation of
150,000 acres of fireswept and idle for
est land in the interior of Cape Cod.
The committee recommends that ten
i percent of the idle forest land be ac-
i quired and reforested by the state as
state forests, also that each town
acquire and develop as town forest ten
percent of the idle forest lands within
its'^boundaries.
In Connecticut, highway beautifica
tion has been accomplished in many
sections through reforestation work
done by Connecticut water companies
on their watershed lands. The result
of this work has been the growth of a
large number of fair-sized pine forests,
and the woodlands surrounding the
reservoirs furnish an attractive pano
rama to the passing motorist.
The state forest service of Vermont
has erected attractive signs on the
main highways with arrows pointing to
the roads leading into state forests.
Trails within the forests also have
been marked.
The Northern Forestry Experiment
station at Amherst, Mass., is conduct-
-ing throughout the whole of New Eng
land experiments in forest improve
ment and conservation. —Durham Sun.
A. J. Maxwell, Chairman of the State
Corporation Commission and also cliair-
man of the recently created tax commis
sion. The North Carolina Club is devot
ing its attention this year to taxation,
and it invited Mr. Maxwell to criticise
the program of study which it has formu
lated. He approved the outline and
expressed the opinion that the studies
made by the club would be of real
value to the commission.
Mr. Maxwell wisely refrained from
making any recommendations or ex
pressing an 7 opinion relative to specific
tax measures. To the contrary he
stated that the investigations of the
commission ought to be just as ex
haustive as time will permit, and its
final recommendations based on the
facts revealed by the investigation.
Taxed for Services
The fact that taxes absorb a large
and increasing share of the national
income indicates, he said, that we have
discovered that we can use the
machinery of goverment as a non
profit, cooperative organization, em
bracing within its scope and jurisdic
tion all the people, and serving ail the
people. Only a small part of the taxes
collected goes to pay for the adminis
trative expenses of government; the
rest goes for services. Nevertheless,
we need to inquire how much further
wfl can afford to go in extendirig these
services.
The commission will endeavor to
determine whether the tax burden on
industry and on agriculture is greater
or less in this state than in other
states. No doubt there are states
where it is considerably less, but per
haps not where the services are com
mensurate. We cannot expect our
taxes to be as low as in the states
where very little is being done for the
people.
In discussing the administration of
the property tax, Mr. Maxwell em
phasized the importance of scientific,
impartial assessments, and be expressed
the fear that the 1927 reassessment
was not as thoroughgoing in every
county as it ought to have been. He
pointed out the need of a method of
taxing growing timber that would
stimulate the reforestation of our
millions of idle acres. He said two-
thirds of the area of the state was
available for forests and that we had
the climate and rainfall to make tim
ber a perennial source of wealth to the
state.
He urged the introduction of more
efficiency in governmental administra
tion, and the same willingness to scrap
obsolete practices in government as in
industry. He pointed out, however,
that efficiency in government will not
come about unless public opinion is
sufficiently enlightened- to demand and
sustain efficiency. This is fully as
important as intelligent leadership.
In conclusion Mr. Maxwell urged the
members of the club not to be carried
away by any particular phase of the
tax question, but to see the whole thing
in balance and in perspective.
The Club Program
The tentative program of the club
for its remaining meetings is as follows:
1. The Debt Situation in the State
2. The Distribution of Governmen
tal Functions
The Tax Burden on Industry
4. The Tax Burden on Agriculture
6. Classification of Property for
Taxation
6. Methods and Problems of Assess
ment
7. The Income Tax in This and
Other States
8. Business and Occupational Taxes
9. The Use and Possibilities of the
Severance Tax
10. The Use and rossibilities of the
Sales Tax
11. The Importance of Developing
Federal and Interstate Comity ,
in Taxation
12. Tax Administration and Tax
Records.
SAFETY NOT A GESTURE
Since 1913, notwithstanding the
material increase in the number
of railroad employees and the volume
of passenger traffic, the number of
persons killed, and also the number
injured on the railroads of the coun
try have been reduced by 36 percent.
The number of deaths of passengers
last year was 166, a reduction of 56
percent; and of these fatalities all
but 79 were due to causes largely be
yond the railroads' control.
When we reflect that our railroads
carried over 860,000,000 passengers
last year, and that 23,000 persons
were killed by automobile accidents
in that period, one-third of whom were
passengers in cars, it is apparent that
the achievements of the railroads in
the interest of safety have been splen
did and remarkable.
Figures furnished by the American
Museum of Safety relative to indus
trial accidents are impressive, not to
say appalling. Fatalities in industries
took more than 86,000 lives last year,
or over 7.000 a month. The authority
quoted concludes that 76 percent of
accidents in industries are preventable.
If so, the railroads are incomparably
successful in making safety a science,
i —Southern News Bulletin.
BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS
Total and per Capita Assets in Each State, 1926-27
The following table shows the assets of building and loan associations, by
states, in the year 1926-27, and how the states rank when this type of savings
is reduced to a per capita basis. The information is based on a recent report
of the United States League of Building and Loan Associations reproduced in
the Manufacturers Record.
The report states that there are 12,626 building and loan associations in the
United States, with total assets of $6,334,103,807. Pennsylvania leads in number
of associations, with 4,460, whose combined assets amount to approximately $1,-
130,000, 000. Measured on a per capita basis New Jersey leads, w^th assets of
$202.74 for every person in the state. Georgia has only 21 associations, with
estimated assets of $1,600,000. This means only $.47 per capita.
North Carolina has 240 associations and their total assets amount to $86,-
716,009 or $29.68 per capita. The estimated population for 1927 is used.
Paul W. Wager
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina
TO STUDY TAXATION
The North Carolina Club at the
State University was favored at its
last meeting with an address by Hon.
Assets of Assets
Assets of Assets
building per
building per
Rank State
and loan ' capita
Rank State
and loan capita
associations
associations
1926-27
1926-27
1
New Jersey ..
..$760,067,761..$202.74
26
Michigan
$112,887,929.. $26.14
2
Maryland
....200,000,000...126.20
26
Maine
..17,458,473... 22.04
3
Ohio
...928,381,733..,123.80
27
Oregon
.. 18,280,226... 20.63
4
Pennsylvania..
.1,130,000,000...116.16
28
New Hampshire. 9,223,974... 20.26
6
Nebraska
....163,128,476..,109.60
29
Montana
.. 13,738,790... 19.26
6
Massachusetts
...425,611,319...100.31
30
Virginia
.. 44,667,196... 17.60
7
Louisiana
....164,186,636... 79.78
31
West Virginia
.. 28,704,386... 16.91
8
Indiana
....247,903,736... 75.67
32
Iowa
.. 40,771,667... 16.80
9
Wisconsin
...182,382,373... 62.60
33
Arkansas
.. 32,029,000... 16.65
10
Utah
.... 30,864,124... 69.07
34
Texas
... 70,804,672... 13.14
11
Kansas
....107,316,298... 68.68
36
South Carolina
.. 22,782,000... 12.43
12
Washington....
... 89,001,163... 66.40
36
North Dakota..
.. 7,788,410... 12.16
13
Illinois
...366,609,301... 48.76
37
Connecticut....
... 18,290,897... 11.78
14
Oklahoma
...103,343,186... 43.66
38
Minnesota
.. 28,643,208... 10.67
16
California
...190,106,988... 42.84
39
New Mexico...
.. 3,260,000... 8.60
16
Missouri
...139,461,899... 39.76
40
Mississippi
.. 13,016,838... 7.24
17
Delaware
.... 8,844,308... 86.40
41
South Dakota..
.. 6,000,427... 7.18
18
Wyoming
.... 8,000,000... 33-40
42
Vermont
... 2,236,747... 6.86
19
Colorado
... 35,186,068... 32.76
43
Nevada
460,370... 6.96
20 North Carolina.-.85,715,009....29.58
44
Alabama
.. 16,000,000... 6.89
21 Kentucky
.... 74,704,133... 29.43
45
Idaho
... 2,336,266... 4.38
22
Florida
.... 39,367,726...;28.86
46
Arizona
.. 1,681,626... 3.66
23 Rhode Island..
... 19,638,606...:;27.72
47
Tennessee
.. 6,716,217... 2.70
24 New York
...297,707,160... 26.04
48
Georgia
.. 1,600,000... .47